Mysterio wrote:

Why is there only one true sequence in which a game should be experienced? It seems to me that the mark of a truly outstanding game-qua-game would be one in which any possible moment is discretely enjoyable without needing hours of sunk costs to raise the stakes. If you reframe a skip gameplay button as a re-sequencing function, is it suddenly so awful?

For instance, I would like a danger room mode in League of Legends. Sometimes all I want to practice are specific mechanics with specific champs. Sometimes these mechanics are only competitively relevant for a few minutes every game, 20-30 minutes into a game. Instead of experiencing numbing boredom while I farm up my build in a totally non-consequential bot match, I would love to be able to tell a danger room "level 8 purple kassadin with boots1, tear and health gem + blue buff midlane against kennen w/ boots1 and wota pushed to tower."

Would that be a perversion of authorial intent?

You could argue that in my example, I'm really not playing League at all, but a skill metagame. So let's take something more conventional. I like Jagged Alliance 2, but I do not have any recent saves and I do not want to start a new game only to have to slog through Drassen and Chitzena. I've already experienced those two towns probably a half dozen times now. Why can't I start in media res with a reasonably equipped squad?